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Article from The Hong Kong Institute of HRM Journal, Jul/Aug 2007
How to Attain Work-life Balance
Employers have long awoken to the fact that employees no longer look upon the size of their pay packets in deciding whether to stay put or move out of their organizations. Increasingly, they look for support from their employers to provide the infrastructure and policies to enable them to attain “better” work-life balance. As societies mature and quality of life becomes more important, employees are demanding, understandably, a better work-life balance so they can get to enjoy the fruits of their hard labor.
Much as employees would like their employers to provide the support, they have also to bear half of the responsibility i.e. to take proactive steps to make sure they do not overly-suffer from work-related stress, fall sick etc.
It is important to highlight here that there is no one universal formula that defines what is an ideal work-life balance – in this instance, it is a case of no one size fits all. Each one of us should be the sole determinant of what’s ideal for us – and also remember that the “ideal” can, and will change over time.
The HR Toolbox for this issue attempts to share some simple strategies.
Individuals
Putting things into perspective, do acknowledge that you are still very much an individual – in addition to your many roles in this world – parent, spouse, employee, etc. Respect that and it will be the basis for which you will begin setting aside and doing things for yourself. Yes, I acknowledge that all of us have many commitments and priorities in this world – and all of us have exactly the same number of hours in a day. All you have to do is to set aside some of the time for yourself. Here’s a simple example.
What time do you retire for the day? 11 pm? See if you can allocate 30 minutes before you retire to do something for yourself – read a book, do some yoga, meditate etc. If you can – great! If not, why not consider going to bed at 11.30 pm rather than at 11 pm? The simple strategy is to tell yourself that the 30 minutes is important to you – it allows you to end the day on a “high”. If something is important to you, you will surely make time for it, wouldn’t you? Do it for a couple of days in a week – and before you realize it, it will become a routine for you, and if you wish, you can also increase the frequency.
Here are a couple more suggestions for you:-
1) Watch the load
Be conscious of piling too much on your plate, resist the urge to take on more than you really want to. If you have been leaving the office late, bringing work home to complete, and realize that you have not been spending enough time with your loved ones, it is a sure sign that you do not have a good work-life balance.
Learn to say “No”, and mean it. If you realized that you already have a full plate – let your boss know if he comes to you with more work. Do it professionally, and I am sure he/she will understand and respect that you do have your limits. Be brave enough to initiate a conversation with your boss if you find that you are becoming more of a stranger in your own home, and have difficulty in remembering your hotel room number, and which country you are in.
2) Slow down
Most of us would have experienced feelings of “burn-out”. My way of describing it would be when you just do not feel like doing anything at all – you know that you are “flat out”. If you do not do something about this, you could be in danger of a nervous breakdown.
This is the time to “slow down”. Consume your leave, take time-off to smell the roses, and if possible, go away for a vacation. Opt for one where you do not have to be waking up early in the morning, every morning of your holiday, to board the tour bus and head for yet another tourist attraction. My favourite is to pick a beach resort, bring along a couple of simple reads, and just chill out under the sun! For me, nothing beats not doing much during vacation breaks!
3) Be mentally positive
The mind is perhaps one of the most under-utilized part of our body, which is quite a waste because this is where most of the “thinking” work is done. There is a change management model, simply called the “Taking Charge” model. When a change occurs, and you can be assured that there will always be plentiful of these, how you choose to react to it determines how you benefit or “suffer negatively” from that change.
I acknowledge that it is not always possible to find some “goodness” in changes. However, if we can consciously try to find that cloud in the silver lining, I am quite sure that we will learn to embrace on-going changes, and utilize them to the best of our individual advantage. The power of positive thinking is simply powerful. Willing yourself to achieve something you have never done before can make the difference in the outcome.
As an example – involuntary job losses continue to plague employees. The stimulus for such job losses vary, depending on the state of the economy, the company’s performance, management changes and the likes. What is certain is that businesses will have to continue to change and shift business strategies to compete well, and even to survive viz a viz ever-changing technological advancement, customer needs/expectations, etc. And, involuntary job losses will continue to happen.
When employees are made redundant, how they choose to respond to the change in the employment status determines if they will benefit or suffer from the change. Adopting a positive mindset, accepting that little can be done to reverse the company’s decision and that it is far better to focus ahead instead of looking-back, will “empower” them to take charge, work closely with their outplacement consultant and move on to find their next career.
Adopting a less than positive mindset might result in inertia, hard feelings, anger, and worse still, self-blame.
4) De-Stress
There is “good” and “bad” stress. The former would be what keeps us improving ourselves – the challenge, for example, to improve on our handicaps on the golf course, or the challenge to improve your timing on the MacLehose Trial.
We all know we have to do things to help us de-stress (especially the “bad “ stress) on a regular basis. However, some of us do not have a strong-enough discipline to keep ourselves in tip-top shape by freeing some of the “bad stress”. If you do not do anything for a prolonged period of time, your health is going to suffer.
All of us have different ways of de-stressing. Going for a two-hour spa session may work for some of us, others simply take walks around the park. Still others burn a hole in their wallets by taking the next flight out to Nice or Phuket.
Organizations
HR professionals have been burning their candles at both ends to come up with creative, yet practical ways to retain talent in their companies. Amongst the many strategies that might be considered are those related to work-life balance. Such policies are supposed to help employees in combining work with their family life, caring responsibilities and personal/social life outside the workplace.
In some countries, there are even legislations put together to ensure businesses take better care of their employees’ work-life balance. Examples that come to mind readily include paid maternity/paternity leave, benefits for part-time employees, etc.
According to the many surveys done by HR consulting firms, flexible scheduling arrangements, child care assistance and employee assistance programs (EAP), featured prominently amongst the many strategies implemented by companies. Others include elderly care programs, which are increasingly necessary due to the “ageing population-syndrome” experienced by many countries, developed or otherwise.
Here are some strategies that companies may consider making available to their employees:-
a) “Virtual” jobs
With the advent of technology, some of the work that needs to be done can now be performed outside the work place eg from home, whilst traveling, etc. Increasingly, companies are beginning to appreciate that their employees do have multiply priorities outside of their careers. One of the ways of tackling the “competition” for time is to make it easier for employees to work outside the office. This brings with it the issue of “trust” – can I trust my subordinate to be working from home rather than watching the latest blockbuster in the local cinema? Well, I do not have a ready-answer to this, and I am not about to say the politically-correct thing bosses must necessarily trust all their people – the world just doesn’t operate this way. Bosses will have to make a judgment call and take decisions based on each individual.
b) Sabbatical
Sabbatical – according to the dictionary – means “bringing a period of rest”, “any extended period of leave from one’s customary work, especially, for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc”.
Sometimes, we reach a stage in our life when we realize that we have somehow lost the zest in our careers. The same feeling that got you bouncing out of bed in the mornings and roaring down the road to arrive at the office before anyone else. We reach a crossroads of sorts where we would like to take some time off to reflect on our careers/lives – what have we done, where are we now, and where would we prefer to go for the next five years or so in our careers?
This is where wondering about aimlessly may not be the smartest thing to do and taking a couple of days/weeks of annual leave may not be adequate. We may need to take ourselves off from the business world for a longer period of time so we can “find ourselves”.
I would haphazard a guess that not too many companies have a policy on “sabbatical” leave. Looking at things from the employer’s perspective, I can well understand why – an employee, especially a key one, on sabbatical means only one thing – someone else will have to do his/her job. Given that most organizations work on a relatively lean structure, it would mean that an interim professional may have to be hired. I guess from the cost point of view, this may not be an issue as employees on sabbatical leave are usually not paid their regular/full salaries – hence, bringing in an interim person may not necessarily result in additional costs to the organization.
c) Job sharing/Splitting/Flexible working hours
This is an arrangement to divide one full-time job or to share work between two or more employees, with the responsibilities and benefits of the job being shared too. The job can be shared in a number of ways: e.g. On the basis of a split week i.e. one employee working two of the five working days and the other covering the other three.
Job splitting is an arrangement similar to job sharing except that the tasks involved in a full-time job are split between two people and each has responsibility for their own tasks rather than being equally responsible for the whole job. The need for co-ordination is therefore, reduced. An advantage of job splitting is that a job can be split in such a way that certain tasks requiring particular skills can be grouped together. In addition, in certain situations the working times of those who have split a job can also overlap.
Some key points on successfully implementation of work-life balance policies within an organization.
l As with the implementation of company-wide policies, communication is key. The intent of introducing work-life balance policies must be clear – to benefit both the employees as well as the organization.
l Policies may be withdrawn or re-written over time, as needs of both benefiting parties may shift. Hence, a monitoring and/feedback process must be put in-place.
l Policies must be fair, economically feasible and be as impartial as practically possible.
Benefits for both groups
There are obviously benefits for both employers and employees for the latter to attain a better work-life balance. Employees will have better confidence and self-esteem, possibly translating to higher productivity and quality of performance in the workplace. They may also enjoy higher quality relationships with loved ones and family.
Paul Heng, CMF
Executive Coach
NeXT Corporate Coaching Services
(A member of the NeXT Career Consulting Group, Asia)
Founding President of the Asian Association of Career Management Professionals
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